Faith & Life

A Reply from Mom

“To Mummy in Heaven. Happy Mother’s Day. I Love You. Ella.” This is a letter a Scottish four-year-old girl named Ella Lennon wrote to her mother. Ella lost her mother to brain tumors a year ago. She wrote a letter with the drawing of her family members, and wrote “Mother in Heaven” on the envelope, and put it in the mailbox, praying that it will be delivered to her mother. A few days later, something like a dream happened to Ella. A letter was delivered to her, of which the envelop reads, “Mummy, 1 Angel Gate, in the Clouds, Heaven.” To my beautiful Ella Thank you so much for the very special Mother’s Day card. Millions + billions + trillions…

Love for Her Daughter-in-law

My family had lived with my parents-in-law for six years until we moved out. My mother-in-law took good care of my family while living together, but after we moved out, she is now taking greater care of us. One day, she called me and said she would drop by my house. On the day she appointed, she came with a lot of luggage in her hands. Remembering that it was my birthday, she brought seaweed soup she had just boiled and various side dishes that I had said I liked while living together. On unpacking all the luggage, she hurriedly stood up, saying that she was busy probably because I might feel uncomfortable if she stayed longer. “It’s hard to…

Jeong Hye-su from Daegu, South Korea

Wearing an Oxygen Mask

Before the plane takes off, the crew demonstrates how to wear an oxygen mask, telling the passengers how to cope with an emergency. The crew recommends that the adult wear it first, and then the child. When an emergency strikes, parents instinctively try to put an oxygen mask on their child first. And helping children, who are the weak, be safe first is a social principle. Then, why should adults wear the oxygen mask first? When a plane loses cabin pressure due to an error in the pressure control system during flight, people may lose consciousness within thirty seconds due to lack of oxygen. The time to wear an oxygen mask is very tight. While an adult is trying to…

A Busy Life Is a Blessing

“Sir, congratulations on your retirement. You’ve written only at night so far. As you can work on it during the day, your works will shine more.” “As I can now see the sunlight while writing, it will definitely shine more than when writing, seeing starlight only. Haha!” English writer Charles Lamb (1775–1834) retired from the company he had worked for 33 years, receiving congratulations from his colleagues. Because of his family’s financial difficulty, he had to work as an accountant while writing in his spare time, dreaming of a day when he could concentrate on writing. He felt lack of time to read books or write because he was spending most of a day in working. Finally, Charles Lamb was…

Angstblüte

Plants produce beautiful and fragrant flowers in order to preserve their species. Blooming, bearing fruit, and spreading seeds away are their instinct. But there are times when plants are more faithful to their instincts than ever before. Bamboos seldom flower because they grow by expanding their underground rhizomes, not seeds. But when they are in an extreme situation where they cannot expand their roots, they bloom. In order to leave their seeds, they flower one last time before they die. Firs too produce unusually colorful and abundant flowers when they are in a bad environment. Oriental orchids too give out flower stalks when their survival is threatened. Plants’ desperate effort to preserve their species by flowering in endangered situations is…

The Last Opportunity

Gurye, located between Mount Jirisan and the Seomjingang River, is famous for persimmons. However, an embankment along the Seomjingang River collapsed due to torrential rain, and the persimmon farms were severely affected. Restoration efforts had to be made quickly to save the persimmon trees and harvest the remaining persimmons, but due to the successive heat waves, it was difficult for the elderly farmers to work long hours. We, the Church of God Young Adult Worker Volunteer Group [ASEZ WAO], visited Gurye to help the farmers in trouble. The head of the village welcomed us, being thankful to us for coming all the way despite the hot weather. Almost all the trees in the large field had fallen. It seemed that…

Kim Shin-hyeong from Gwangju, South Korea

A Cup Warning of Overflow

In the late Joseon Dynasty in Korea, there was a potter named Woo Myeong-ok in a mountain village of Gangwon-do Province. He wanted to make beautiful porcelain beyond the earthenware, so he entered the Bunwon, which produced porcelain for the royal family, with a great ambition. There he learned hard from his teacher and his skill finally reached artistic mastery. As a result, he could earn tremendous wealth and fame. However, forgetting his first resolution, he became arrogant and led a dissolute life. After he lost everything he had, he came to his senses. Afterwards, he kept his mind and body clean and made a cup with all his strength. The work was called a “Cup Warning of Overflow.” When…

Keep Your Face as Bright as Sunshine

The weather is not only in the sky, but also on the face. A cold look, a warm smile, a bright look like sunshine, and a gloomy look like dark clouds … . Facial expressions are compared to weather. Just as we are pleased and excited on a clear sunny day for no special reason, so are we when we meet a person with a bright look. When the other person gives a bright look, it not only pleases you and softens your heart, but also drives away your uncomfortable feeling just as sunshine pushes away dark clouds. How is the weather on your face now? Why don’t you keep your face as bright as sunshine, this month? You’ll feel…

To Keep a Dying Boy Alive

In September 2018, an eight-year-old boy was carried to a hospital in Changzhou, Jiangsu, China. His illness was fulminant myocarditis. It is very urgent illness that causes cardiac arrest due to sudden inflammation in the muscles surrounding the heart. Doctors urgently performed artificial respiration and cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR]. But the heart of the child did not revive. In this urgent situation, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation [ECMO]1 therapy was the only way to save the child. Unfortunately, the hospital was not equipped with that medical device and had to be supported by a larger hospital. It took five hours to transport and operate the complex equipment. However, the child who was on the verge of death could breathe again at the end…

Power of Change

Recently, a new sister received the blessing of leading her younger sister to God. She loves God’s word. Whenever she had time, she would come to Zion to study the Bible even though she was tired from work, and she would share the word of God with her family members when she went home. Then she led her mom to Zion. However, as the Movement Control Order was implemented due to the COVID-19, she could not come to Zion to study and worship. She was sad and discouraged. What was worse, she faced financial difficulties, so she had a hard time. But she thanked God for helping her in time of need and did not lose her faith. Since she…

Lim Chia Kee from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

An Impressive Race

This happened at the women’s 5,000-meter run in the Rio Olympics 2016. Some athletes were running in the second group when New Zealand athlete Hamblin tripped and fell, causing USA’s Abbey D’Agostino to fall. Abbey would feel aggrieved, but she rather raised up Hamblin, saying, “Get up, get up, we have to finish this.” Probably because of the damage from falling, Abbey faltered and fell down in a few steps. This time, Hamblin encouraged her and ran the race together. Although they saw each other for the first time, they cheered up each other and ran the race together, and they embraced each other after crossing the finish line. Hamblin said, “Everyone wants to win, and everyone wants a medal.…

The Medici Effect

The Medici Effect refers to a phenomenon which inspires breakthrough insights or produces great productivity when different fields come together. This means “1+1>2” instead of “1+1=2.” It is derived from the House of Medici in Italy. From the 14th century to the 17th century, the Medici family accumulated great wealth through trade and finance. Then, the family lavished support on culture and art. Artists, architects, and scientists of the time were invited to Medici’s mansions and worked freely without worrying about their livelihoods, which created an environment where experts in various fields could tear down each other’s walls and fuse their talents. World-renowned artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Dante emerged at this time. And Florence, the…

Walking with Heavenly Father and Mother

One Sunday, on my way to a church that my relatives introduced to me, nearby my matrimonial house, I met members from the Church of God. They delivered to me news like a bolt out of the blue—the cross is an idol. Following the example of my devout Christian parents, I always had a cross around my neck from a young age, and felt at ease during sleep only when I had a cross in my hand. It was extremely unpleasant to hear that the cross is an idol; it was to shake the foundation of my faith. However, they proved it from the Bible, and I could not refute them. A few days later, I became a child of…

Park Chan-jeong from Jeju, South Korea

Two Fools

Two men were working in the mountain. One man dug a hole, then the other man filled up the hole with dirt. Moving from place to place, they repeated digging holes and filling them up. A man watching their work asked them, puzzled. “I’ve seen you working for a while, but I don’t understand at all. What on earth are you doing?” Then one of the two answered, “We plant trees. Usually, three men work together; one man digs a hole, another man puts a tree in it, and the other man fills up the hole. But the man who puts a tree in holes didn’t come today. So just two of us are working now.” Hearing that, the man…

The Power of Gratitude

A paper titled “Undervaluing Gratitude” was published in the Sage Journals in June 2018. Psychologists Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley, co-authors of the paper, asked the participants to write gratitude letters to their friends or acquaintances. The participants were also asked to predict the happiness that the recipients would feel when receiving the gratitude letters. The happiness they predicted was three out of five points; more people were concerned that the recipients would feel awkward and the letters might look pretentious or insincere than those who expected that the recipients would feel grateful. However, the level of happiness of those who received the gratitude letters was four points, which was higher than expected. Letters were just one paragraph written in…

A Habit, the Beginning of Change

From the moment you wake up in the morning until you fall asleep at night, you do countless actions. However, you do not worry about how to wash, in what order to wear clothes, and how to use spoons when eating. The body moves before the head because those have grown into habits. A habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. It is not too much to say that life is a continuation of habits; our daily life consists of various habits such as sleeping habits, eating habits, exercise habits, language habits, driving habits, and consumption habits. It is said, “We are what we do repeatedly. Excellence, then, is not an act, but…

Mother’s Special Lesson

In the Bible, youth is likened to the dew of the dawn. The pure and clean dew of the dawn is beautiful but it is seen only for a while. Though young adults receive great blessings in the time of youth, it passes quickly. So I made up my mind to take the blessing whenever I get a chance. In the beginning of this year, I applied for a short-term mission to Quezon City, Philippines, after coming back from Panaji in India. Quezon City is the biggest city located in the southwestern part of Luzon. The population is as large as the vast land, and there are the National Assembly, government offices, and prestigious schools. Probably because of this, the…

Kim Min-cheol from Anyang, South Korea

The Tomb of Words

Four or five hundred years ago in Korea, there was a village where people were divided into groups with the same family name and argued each other almost every day. Quarrels arouse mostly because of a minor word of someone. One day, a wayfarer passed by and heard the story. He recommended the villagers to build a Tomb of Words. It was to write on paper all the words that caused discord such as lies, harsh words, and the words that pick on or hurt others and to bury them just like having a funeral. After the villagers made the tomb as the wayfarer said, the discord and conflict caused by words disappeared and it became a peaceful village. “The…

When I Was Three Years Old

I happened to take care of a three-year-old daughter of my acquaintance for hours. My parents, who were out with me, picked her up together and headed home. My parents looked very happy, probably because they had little opportunity for taking care of a kid. When we arrived home, I had to carry her up the stairs to the third floor we live on. At the time, my dad asked the girl, “Do you mind if this uncle takes you in the arms?” I burst into laughter because it was funny to see the way my dad carefully asked a child for permission, calling himself uncle not grandpa. Dad looked excited, going up the stairs with her in his arms.…

Park Yun-jeong from Seongnam, South Korea

Loss Aversion Bias

Between the joy of picking one hundred-dollar bill on the road and the agony of losing it, which emotion do you think is bigger? People usually choose the latter one. This is because they feel the agony of losing more than the joy of getting the same amount of money. This psychological phenomenon, which is more sensitive to loss than profit, is called “Loss Aversion Bias.” The same is true in golf; the agony of a bogey [taking one stroke more than what is expected] outweighs the thrill of a birdie [sinking a ball in one stroke less than the number of expected strokes]. This makes golfers have fear of failure and discourages them to give it a new try.…